cuttle with octo

[joel_ang]

Is it possible to keep an octopus and a cuttle fish together? Then i wont have to get another tank.

 

[Colin]

nah, its been tried and the lived together for a couple of weeks then the octo ate the cuttle

 

[joel_ang]

Thanks for the advice . You have just saved saved a life in advance!!!

 

[joel_ang]

Well, id like to know what species of octo comes from around my area. Hopefully Id roughly know what species my next octo will be. The octos are sold when their mantle is about 2 inches.

 

[joel_ang]

Well can cuttles be kept with lionfish, or may be a large sized archer fish?

 

[Colin]

nope, all of these are asking for trouble... Its even difficult keeping two cuttles together.

I DONT recomend keeping a cuttlefish with anything else in a tank less that 300 gals. I tried in a 200 and ended up with one BIG cuttle!

C

 

[joel_ang]

Thats sad Well I guess ill put the archer and the lion fish(if i get them) with the seahorses. I wonder how the LFS keeps 8 cuttles in a small tank, May be I'll get a huge tank. I wanted to buy and octo today( no idea what species) as it was quite big and stil the same price.Unfortunately the octo had what looked like an ulcer on its mantle.

 

[cthulhu77]

a lot of cuttles can be kept together in a smaller tank, but only for a brief time...there isn't enough room for them to establish any sort of territory, but they get frustrated and sickly very fast.
I think Colin has the right of it...300 gallons or more is the way to go...and hope you live near the ocean, because the cost on sea salt would preclude a lot of water changes! Yikes!
Greg

 

[Colin]

yep a 200 gal sysyem went through some amount of salt!!!!

I originally had seven until they were 4" and one got eaten so cut it down to a pair and at 8" they tried to spawn but he ate her.... a definite lack of space I think!

Remember Joel that they are all opportunistic carnivores and that includes cannabalism!

C

 

[joel_ang]

What did you do with the other cuttles?????????????????????
Thats really sad to hear(about all the cannabalism).300 gallons is kinda pricey and so is the salt. Then again it's a huge tank. "no space no space! Y!? Y!? Y!?"

 

[Colin]

The spare cuttles went to a sea life centre in the Rep of Ireland and were on public display until they died, so they had a good retirement!

 

[joel_ang]

Anyway, what species of octopus are there around my area?

 

[Sedusa]

Hi Joel,

From CephBase www.cephbase.com

Cephalopod Species
in the Exclusive Economic Zone of Singapore

(I've edited this to just the Octopuses)

Argonauta argo
Octopus (Octopus) aegina
Octopus (Octopus) cyanea
Octopus (Octopus) globosus
Octopus (Octopus) macropus
Octopus (Octopus) membranaceus
Octopus (Octopus) vulgaris

If you go to http://www.cephbase.utmb.edu/biogeo/biogeo.cfm, and search for the Exclusive Economic Zone of Singapore (the last scroll down box), you'll find additional information (range, etc.). Check out CephBase anyway! It's a repository of knowledge for Cephalopod Workers and is often useful even for the hobbyist.

 

[joel_ang]

I never knew there were so many species of ceph here

 

[cephjedi]

Dude,

If you can find and keep an Octopus cyanea you will be in for a serious treat! O. cyanea is a fairly large diurnal octopus, sporting a mantle length about the size of a coconut but it is capable of some really wild color changes and even wilder texture changes! They are nearly impossible to get in this country, but through my research connections I managed to acquire one a few years ago. An AMAZING animal.

It didn't last long, unfortunately. My tank went through an 8 month period where it killed cephalopods relentlessly and the cyanea was it's first victim.

Rock on, Jimbo